The stimulatory role of estrogen on prolactin secretion and on proliferation of lactotropic cells is well established in terms of physiology but could this phenomenon be extended to include harmful effects of estrogens on prolactinoma? The aim of this review is to provide an up-to-date assessment of this subject with regard to pregnancy, use of contraceptive pills and postmenopausal hormone rep...

Background: Prolactin is a well-known hormone that mainly functions as a milk producer. Its secretion by lactotroph cells in the pituitary gland (anterior pituitary) is under regulation by different effectors, mainly by Dopamine. However, under non-physiologic circumstances, Prolactin can be over secreted (hyper-prolactinemia) either due to primary (such as pituitary adenoma) or secondary (such...

To investigate the role of p185(her2/neu)/ErbB3 signaling in pituitary tumor function, we examined these receptors in human prolactinomas. Immunofluorescent p185(her2/neu) was detected in almost all (seven of eight), and ErbB3 expression in a subset (four of eight) of tumors (seven adenomas and one carcinoma). Quantitative PCR also showed abundant ErbB3 mRNA in tumor specimens derived from a ra...

INTRODUCTION Malignant prolactinoma is an exceedingly rare endocrine tumor and cannot be diagnosed on histological grounds alone. Similarly to other neuroendocrine tumors such as pheochromocytoma, the mitoses index, Ki-67, p53, and others are utilized in helping understand whether a tumor is benign or malignant or to better predict tumor behavior. We here present the unusual case of an unfortun...

The biological systems are opened, complex objects, which can regularly exchange feedbacks with their environment. The calcium ion is a universal messenger, which can regulate several cellular functions e.g. exocytosis machinery. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the response mechanisms of normal adenohypophysis and adenohypophyseal prolactinoma cell populations at different extr...